E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Bruce 2008.1

I've written a lot about my experiences as a Bruce Springsteen fan over the years. When I was in law school something like 30 years ago, I was determined to write the definitive piece about how the Nijinsky of Asbury Park fit into my world view. I wrote and wrote and wrote, on a portable typewriter that I dragged around with me in those days. What emerged was a jumbled mess of an article that the editor of the law school newspaper couldn't understand, much less publish. It made sense to me, but no one else would get it. I was happy to get what I felt out of my system for a while, but what I wrote never saw the light of day.

I didn't get the manuscript back from that guy. It would make interesting reading now.

Anyway, there are always a lot of layers to Bruce stories. There's the music, the star, the performances, the crowd, the scene, the politics, and probably most importantly, how all of the above tie into the real world that happens before the music starts and after it stops. Having just come off last night's show at the Rose Garden in Portland, I think I'll try something that I wasn't smart enough to go for back in law school: I'll take the layers one at a time.

The last time Bruce and his band were here, playing the album "The Rising," the Mrs. and I got to the arena early enough to camp out in a line all afternoon and stand in the mosh pit right in front of the stage. There were no seats on the main floor of the arena, and no reserved spots on which to stand, but 350 lucky fans got to stand in the pit. Being that close to the E Street Band is a wonderful experience, and of course we wanted to do it again, and so for the present tour we again bought a pair of general admission, standing room spots.

This time around, the Bruce people eliminated the need for us to stand around all afternoon waiting for the show. Instead, from 2 to 5 they issued wristbands to all floor ticketholders who requested one, each with a number, issued in ascending numerical order. At 5:15 they would pick a number, and that number would be first in line to get in. Everyone after that number would line up behind him or her, in order. Once they reached the last number that had been issued, the patron with number 1 would get to go in, then 2, etc.

We popped over to the Rose Garden with the kids in tow a little before 3 and got our orange wristbands -- numbers 297 and 298. "Left wrist, please," the Springsteen man said. Nice silver-haired Jersey guy, around my age.

At the number assignment session, we saw some folks we know, right off the bat. Bean was there, along with Jim the Musician Lawyer, and our numbers were right next to theirs. We mused briefly about where we would stand in the pit if we got in. Then we went home for a cup of coffee before coming back for the 5:15 Moment of Truth.

When we arrived back at the arena at the appointed time, there were about a thousand people milling around outside. Everybody was lining up, as instructed, in number order. There was a KGON truck parked there, playing a 30-second commercial on a large screen over and over. The "We Will Rock You" one. I was able to tune it out, but it drove some people crazy. Eventually one of the fans climbed into the KGON truck and pulled the plug on the music. The crowd let out a big cheer.

There were some other folks in the crowd that we recognized. Craig the Guy I Work With and his daughter were there, and a young fellow I know, Charles. They were back in the 600's somewhere. In the line, we had some time for some nice conversation with the people behind us, whom we were meeting for the first time. Bruce concertgoers are always good company.

It had been a crazy weather day, with sun, then driving hail; temperatures were unseasonably cool, but the skies were sunny and blue. When the Springsteen guy came out and shook up the big bowl with the numbers in it, everybody stood up. A guy behind me said that the last number they had issued was 796. Bean and I deduced that if they drew a number lower than ours or higher than 750, we were in the pit. We all silently applied our powers of persuasion on the gods of fortune.

A fan out of the crowd picked the number and handed it to the tour guy. Then a young fellow with a bullhorn made the announcement: "670."

And so everybody from 670 to the end, and from the start of the line to number 230, would get to hang in the pit. For the rest of us, and for hundreds more who would be showing up in the next couple of hours, we'd have the back two-thirds of the arena floor to stand on.

We stood there pondering our fate. We had had about a 40 percent chance of making it to heaven, and we didn't quite get there.

Now, when you get as old as I am, you tend to have a Plan B for just about everything. In our case, we had heard through the grapevine earlier in the week that some nice lower-level seats had suddenly gone on sale, and we had also purchased two of them. And so I had four tickets in my pocket -- two floors, two decent seats. Knowing we would have an extra pair of tickets, and taking advantage of this era of bar-coded electronic tickets, we had parked an extra copy of both pairs with a friend. We told her we would call her after the drawing and tell her which pair she should use. After the Magic Number had been announced, we punched her digits into the cell and told her she'd be using the floor tickets. We would be sitting in the seats.

After I hung up, we stuck around in the line for a while. With Bruce's organization, there are sometimes pleasant surprises. Maybe, we thought, they'd let some extra folks into the pit. But the drawing had been so well organized, and the counting so exact, we eventually reached the conclusion that no, there would be no reprieve.

Given that they had numbers right around ours, Bean and Jim were also out of luck. Craig had a number in the low 600's, and so he missed the cut, too. Only Charles made it, and he scored big time, in the first 20 or so. "I hate you," I told him with a big smile. He and his lady friend were in for the big ride.

It was only 6:00, and the show wasn't scheduled to start for another hour and a half, and so the Mrs. and I decided to find a drink somewhere. We bid farewell to our erstwhile standing-room buddies, stepped over the yellow crime scene tape that was marking the lineup area, and walked off.

Comments (13)

Maybe you'll get a kick out of this. I saw Paul Krugman lecture when he was still at Stanford and he used Bruce Springsteen songs as an introduction and transitional bridge throughout his speech on economics.

"They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks... 160 jobs going away and they ain't coming back."

This was in 1994 and most of the students there were too young to remember Bruce at his zenith, but for some of us it made for a masterful speech.

I'm a Bean. We chatted last weekend, while you were walking your kinder to the park. Not the Bean you were mentioning, but thought I'd say hi nonetheless.
It was only my second Bruce show, first in 10 years or so. The man is truly a rock star who knows how to work it.
Personally, I find ticket prices a bit outlandish, but I'm sure some of my clients feel that paying me $220/hr. is a bit outlandish.
Well, from a Bean to a Jack, I hope you enjoyed the show.
-David Bean (NWSL class of 2001)

Great show last night. We had seats in the upper level row B, Section 316; higher than we would both like - but had a better view of the stage than we thought. Not sure how things sounded closer to the floor - but the sound seemed a bit distorted where we sat. Have to admit that I enjoy Bruce's older songs a lot more than some of the current stuff. But maybe that's a reflection of my taste for oldies music.

Amazing show. I too bought 100 level seats earlier this week to go with my GAFLOOR. Unlike you I decided that my wheels were in too bad a shape to stand for 4 hours and sold my GAFLOOR tickets to a friend.

I agree, great show. I also agree with Dave A.'s comment about the sound, especially with Bruce's mic. It sounded like it had kind of an echo thing going on. We were sitting in a "corner" of the oval, off a corner of the basketball configuration, in a row directly in front of one of the luxury boxes. I loved hearing "Night" (the opener) and "She's The One", two very underrated songs from "Born To Run". And "Jungleland"...it just doesn't get better than that.

I have seen Bruce 5-6 times over the years, starting with a show at the Meadowlands on the Born in the USA tour. Last night's show was great, because the guy doesn't do a bad show. But, if you really want to experience a Bruce show, you should see him on the East Coast at some point. New York/New Jersey is ideal, but anywhere on the East Coast (DC - Boston) would work. The energy level is completely different, and he feeds off that. For example, at points last night he wanted the crowd to sing the lyrics, and not enough people responded. Back East, that just wouldn't happen. Or there were empty seats and lots of people sitting for large portions of the show. That said, it was great to see him again, but it's far better back East.

I never reconciled him managing to appear on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the very same week in 1975, at a time when he was still a total nobody. How does that even happen? It made me feel like he was always more contrived sizzle than actual steak. His music was fine, but precious little of it was good enough to overcome that initial impression.

Interesting that you weigh the failings of the press against the person whose simultaneous appearance on the cover of both mags really helped provide a useful demonstration about the narrow range of views permitted in corporate media -- even when they choose to feature an "up and comer" it's the same one because heaven forfend they don't make the safe choice ...

Fascinating look at Springsteen. It's been over 30 years since I waited in line for prime concert seats. Come to think of it, approximately the same amount of time has passed since I idolized a band or musician.

Who knows? Maybe attending dozens of rock concerts a year from age 14 to about 24 took some of the thrill out.

It certainly tossed some hearing loss in the mix. That's what you get when you mix festival seating and too many concerts where you stood right in front of the 20 foot high speakers. . .

It's good to read about folks who still have a "thing" for their favorites musicians.

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 156
At this date last year: 225
Total run in 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269